UFC's talent roster is too full, Dana White says

Most UFC fighters expect to compete three times per year, and many feel that’s not enough.

Fighting once per year, however, is almost universally a bad thing if you’re healthy and on the lower end of the promotion’s pay scale.

Onetime title challenger John Dodson (15-6 MMA, 4-1 UFC), who knocked out Darrell Montague (13-3 MMA, 0-1 UFC) at this past Saturday’s UFC 166 event, is both of those things. With his appearance, which won him a $60,000 “Knockout of the Night” bonus, the 29-year-old fighter logged three bouts over a 12-month period.

He also waited 10 months between his second and third bout. It prompted him to beg the UFC to put him back in the cage as soon as possible.

This past December, UFC President Dana White apologized to fighters from Strikeforce who were forced to sit inactive as the promotion’s future hung in the balance. He said the situation made him “sick” and assured them that the days of waiting for fights were over.

But following an influx of talent from the now-defunct promotion, that might not be the case for those under the UFC umbrella.

“Our roster is too full,” White said following this past Saturday’s pay-per-view event at Houston’s Toyota Center. “Guys have to get fights.”

Increasing demand from fighters has forced the promotion to make more cuts to its roster, which guarantees fan griping if a particular fighter is viewed as a still-viable asset. But by now, it’s a tradeoff White is used to defending.

“Every time after a show we cut a guy, and they’re like, ‘F–k you, Dana White. You’re an idiot. This guy is’ – shut the f–k up,” he said. “Let us run our business. The roster’s too full, and we want to be good to guys that deserve to be good to.

“Guys like (Yushin) Okami – I like Okami a lot. He’s a great guy. But when guys lose, (or) when guys are at certain points in their career, or whatever it might be, guys have to be cut to thin this roster out, so guys like Dodson can continue to fight.”

For Dodson and others like him, that’s good news. But as White also pointed out, there’s a price for inactivity that could also wind up hurting the UFC’s bottom line.

“We’re in a situation where, if we don’t give guys fights, we have to pay them for not fighting, which isn’t good, either,” he said. “It’s not like, ‘We don’t want to pay a bunch of guys to not fight.’ Guys want to fight. Guys want to stay busy and stay active.”

At the moment, the UFC’s event schedule shows no signs of slowing down, so there could be even more opportunity for fighters to up their earnings. More than ever, though, it’s a delicate balance between keeping them happy and running the business smoothly.

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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